The pattern for the striped blanket I made is now available!
Friday, February 24, 2012
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Making a blanket
It started with the yarn. I got ten skeins of Baby Bee Sweet Delight on a trip to Hobby Lobby. The colors were called chocolate, teddy, sweet mocha, little princess, baby camo, sage, meema's blue, and blue baby camo. I knew I wanted to make a blanket, a striped blanket. The next part was finding a pattern. I looked all over ravelry and couldn't find one I liked completely. I found two that inspired me. The first being the Weevera Blanket by Katie Benedict. I liked the idea of different textures with each stripe, but I wanted more connection between the different stripes, and it didn't work with the variegated colors I got. The second was Rainbow Lattice Baby Blanket by Rachel Murray. I love this blanket and I especially loved the lattice pattern, but it didn't quite fit what I wanted. I didn't want to have to do any stockinette and the lattice pattern wouldn't look good in the variegated colors.
I ended up deciding to combine ideas from both. Instead of a different texture with each stripe I decided to stripe the stitch patterns as well as the colors. For chocolate and brown I decided on seed stitch. The variegated colors would be a simple slip stich pattern that they would look good in, and the lattice pattern for the solid colors.
Slip stitch pattern
Lattice pattern
Next was figuring out the order the colors would go in. I'd start with chocolate, next would come sweet mocha making the transition from brown into the solid pink stripe and then the stripe of teddy which would lead into the green section, chocolate again, then the blue section ending with teddy. First I though about doing one stripe with each skein of yarn, a total of ten stripes. I didn't like the thought of having two different browns at either end. Their needed to be symmetry. So I'd have to repeat all the colors a second time, in the same order but the brown between the sections would be different. Just repeating the pattern again would have a pink section on one end and a blue section of the other. Again, their needed to be symmetry. The decision was made to go backwards through the colors so I'd have the blue sections in the middle and the pink sections on either end with the green in between. Their'd be a stripe of teddy to mark the middle, and their'd only be three stripes of teddy but that wasn't a problem. A total of 19 stripes.
The next step was figuring out what size I wanted it to be. I wanted it to be about 44" across so I figured out my gauge and with some simple arithmetic, taking into account the necessary multiples of stitches for all the stitch patterns to work out, I calculated how many stitches to cast on. I knitted the first stripe of chocolate ending after I used up about half the skein. It ended up being 32 rows which was about 3.5" in seed stitch. From this I figured the blanket would be about 66" long. A good size. Each stripe would be 32 rows, which worked out great since the stitch patterns had row repeats that fit nicely into 32.
Thus I started on a wonderful knitting adventure in May of 2011.
The first three stripes went quickly, the excitement of starting the project fueling me on. The green section was slowed down by trips and the heat of the summer. Things continued to move slowly with the fair taking up my time in august and just wanting to work on something different.
Disaster struck in October. I was over half way through the first of the solid blue stripes when I discovered I'd messed up the pattern at the beginning of the stripe and I had to take the whole thing out. The blanket went into time out for a bit after that. But I finally took a picture of my progress.
Eventually I was able to pick it back up and finish both blue sections by the time January started. Mid January I took a trip to the east coast to visit my sister. I took the blanket with me, along with the yarns for the green section. I managed to get the green stripes done and started into the last of the teddy colored stripes. The rest of the blanket went quickly after that the excitement of almost being done making it the only thing I wanted to work on.
I was at Yarnies, my favorite knitting group, when I knitted the last row before the bind off. I was slightly tempted to bind off there even though everyone had left but figured it could wait until I got home. No need to rush the momentous occasion. I bound off the blanket a couple hours later.
February 9, 2012. Bound off the blanket about nine months after I casted on.
It was unbelievable. But things weren't finished. Ends needed to be woven in and the blanket really needed to be blocked.
Blanket before blocking
The seed stitch stripes were all puckered, the sides curled in, and the corners weren't square. Space for blocking it required moving furniture around in the living room and then laying down a sheet to keep the blanket clean. I used all of my blocking wires except the two for doing curves. My mom helped me pin it out and showed me how the square the corners so it would look all nice and purty.
Blanket pinned out
I steam blocked it, since it's acrylic. I couldn't believe it when I pulled out the blocking wires. It was done. I now had a blanket that I knitted with my own two hands. Not only that, but it was my own design, the first one I ever endeavored to do.
February 10, 2012. Blanket finished. Final size 55"X67". The cat approves.
Tomorrow I take it back to Yarnies to show it off to my knitting friends. Then it's time to start writing up the pattern. It will be free so that others may take the journey to make a similar blanket for themselves.
I ended up deciding to combine ideas from both. Instead of a different texture with each stripe I decided to stripe the stitch patterns as well as the colors. For chocolate and brown I decided on seed stitch. The variegated colors would be a simple slip stich pattern that they would look good in, and the lattice pattern for the solid colors.
Slip stitch pattern
Lattice pattern
Next was figuring out the order the colors would go in. I'd start with chocolate, next would come sweet mocha making the transition from brown into the solid pink stripe and then the stripe of teddy which would lead into the green section, chocolate again, then the blue section ending with teddy. First I though about doing one stripe with each skein of yarn, a total of ten stripes. I didn't like the thought of having two different browns at either end. Their needed to be symmetry. So I'd have to repeat all the colors a second time, in the same order but the brown between the sections would be different. Just repeating the pattern again would have a pink section on one end and a blue section of the other. Again, their needed to be symmetry. The decision was made to go backwards through the colors so I'd have the blue sections in the middle and the pink sections on either end with the green in between. Their'd be a stripe of teddy to mark the middle, and their'd only be three stripes of teddy but that wasn't a problem. A total of 19 stripes.
The next step was figuring out what size I wanted it to be. I wanted it to be about 44" across so I figured out my gauge and with some simple arithmetic, taking into account the necessary multiples of stitches for all the stitch patterns to work out, I calculated how many stitches to cast on. I knitted the first stripe of chocolate ending after I used up about half the skein. It ended up being 32 rows which was about 3.5" in seed stitch. From this I figured the blanket would be about 66" long. A good size. Each stripe would be 32 rows, which worked out great since the stitch patterns had row repeats that fit nicely into 32.
Thus I started on a wonderful knitting adventure in May of 2011.
The first three stripes went quickly, the excitement of starting the project fueling me on. The green section was slowed down by trips and the heat of the summer. Things continued to move slowly with the fair taking up my time in august and just wanting to work on something different.
Disaster struck in October. I was over half way through the first of the solid blue stripes when I discovered I'd messed up the pattern at the beginning of the stripe and I had to take the whole thing out. The blanket went into time out for a bit after that. But I finally took a picture of my progress.
Eventually I was able to pick it back up and finish both blue sections by the time January started. Mid January I took a trip to the east coast to visit my sister. I took the blanket with me, along with the yarns for the green section. I managed to get the green stripes done and started into the last of the teddy colored stripes. The rest of the blanket went quickly after that the excitement of almost being done making it the only thing I wanted to work on.
I was at Yarnies, my favorite knitting group, when I knitted the last row before the bind off. I was slightly tempted to bind off there even though everyone had left but figured it could wait until I got home. No need to rush the momentous occasion. I bound off the blanket a couple hours later.
February 9, 2012. Bound off the blanket about nine months after I casted on.
It was unbelievable. But things weren't finished. Ends needed to be woven in and the blanket really needed to be blocked.
Blanket before blocking
The seed stitch stripes were all puckered, the sides curled in, and the corners weren't square. Space for blocking it required moving furniture around in the living room and then laying down a sheet to keep the blanket clean. I used all of my blocking wires except the two for doing curves. My mom helped me pin it out and showed me how the square the corners so it would look all nice and purty.
Blanket pinned out
I steam blocked it, since it's acrylic. I couldn't believe it when I pulled out the blocking wires. It was done. I now had a blanket that I knitted with my own two hands. Not only that, but it was my own design, the first one I ever endeavored to do.
February 10, 2012. Blanket finished. Final size 55"X67". The cat approves.
Tomorrow I take it back to Yarnies to show it off to my knitting friends. Then it's time to start writing up the pattern. It will be free so that others may take the journey to make a similar blanket for themselves.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
I should write a blog
Bloggy bloggy bloggy blog.
So, I'm almost done with the blanket I've been working on since last May! Excitement! It'll be nice to have such a big project done, so I can start another one. Get project done so you can start a new one. It never ends. This is a good thing. Really want to pull out my straight fours and start another elephant.
So my mom got a new dog. She's a really pretty german shepherd and husky mix. Her name is Cable and she's scared of me. Which is somewhat weird since she met me first. But then, Morgan was afraid of me when we first got him, too. Starting to make some progress with her. She'll now come up to me when I offer her food. Still won't let me pet her unless mom's there and holding on to her.
I don't think there's much else for me to talk about. Oh wait. I started reading a book last night that's a steampunk novel about superheroes. Haven't read that much of it yet but it definitely seems like it's going to be a really fun read.
Back to working on the blanket. Only ten more rows to go.
So, I'm almost done with the blanket I've been working on since last May! Excitement! It'll be nice to have such a big project done, so I can start another one. Get project done so you can start a new one. It never ends. This is a good thing. Really want to pull out my straight fours and start another elephant.
So my mom got a new dog. She's a really pretty german shepherd and husky mix. Her name is Cable and she's scared of me. Which is somewhat weird since she met me first. But then, Morgan was afraid of me when we first got him, too. Starting to make some progress with her. She'll now come up to me when I offer her food. Still won't let me pet her unless mom's there and holding on to her.
I don't think there's much else for me to talk about. Oh wait. I started reading a book last night that's a steampunk novel about superheroes. Haven't read that much of it yet but it definitely seems like it's going to be a really fun read.
Back to working on the blanket. Only ten more rows to go.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Have a Holly Jolly Shopmas
I don't particularly care for Christmas shopping. Possibly because I'm selfish and have a hard time coming up with gift ideas for people. I find lots of stuff I want. There's that joy when you find the perfect gift for someone but that doesn't seem to happen as often as it did when we first started celebrating Christmas.
Christmas shopping for my mom can be the hardest, it seems. There's usually at least one gift we can figure out to get her. That's the one she bugs us about. But then trying to figure out what other things to get her can be difficult. Chocolates, is obvious, and easy, but mom needs more than chocolates. I do this shopping with my dad, who isn't very helpful. We usually end up wandering around Fred Meyer, lost looks on our faces, going in circles around and around trying to figure what to get mom.
Today was that day. I think we did better than previous years. Dad, was of course lest than helpful. You'd think after what, 29 years, he'd figure out what mom likes. I actually came up with some good stocking stuffer ideas, mostly food. I like getting food in my stocking. Now I'm exhausted and not wanting to do anymore shopping. But I know there will be more. There's going to be something we have to get and mom will probably drag me with her.
Also, found giant mouse/scratching pad. It is awesome. I hope the kitties love it. If not, I can play with it.
Happy Winter Solstice!
Garnet
Christmas shopping for my mom can be the hardest, it seems. There's usually at least one gift we can figure out to get her. That's the one she bugs us about. But then trying to figure out what other things to get her can be difficult. Chocolates, is obvious, and easy, but mom needs more than chocolates. I do this shopping with my dad, who isn't very helpful. We usually end up wandering around Fred Meyer, lost looks on our faces, going in circles around and around trying to figure what to get mom.
Today was that day. I think we did better than previous years. Dad, was of course lest than helpful. You'd think after what, 29 years, he'd figure out what mom likes. I actually came up with some good stocking stuffer ideas, mostly food. I like getting food in my stocking. Now I'm exhausted and not wanting to do anymore shopping. But I know there will be more. There's going to be something we have to get and mom will probably drag me with her.
Also, found giant mouse/scratching pad. It is awesome. I hope the kitties love it. If not, I can play with it.
Happy Winter Solstice!
Garnet
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Every OS sucks
I suppose everybody has a love hate relationship with computers. You love them because they make your life easier. You hate them because they never seem to work right, which makes you wonder why you ever loved them to begin with. I've got some computer hate and love this week.
Hate:
I have a Mac. I also have a PC but it's getting up there in years and the hard drive makes a loud noise and is probably very close to a crash, so I use my Mac mostly. When I got my Mac I pretty much looked right away for writing software for it, since Pages just seemed liked the hipsters Microsoft Word. I had just started using yWriter5 when I switched computers. It was only available for Windows. Last night I discovered that there was a way to get the Linux version to run on a Mac. It seemed simple, download this program then download yWriter and then use the first program to run yWriter. So I did this and it didn't work. No surprise there. Things never work when they say they should. Eventually it was 2am and I forced myself to give up. In the morning after some sleep I went at it again and it still refused to work. I looked back at the instructions asking myself if I downloaded the right program. I quickly realized I needed to download an older version of the program I was trying to use to run yWriter. Downloaded and installed the older version and low and behold it worked. This makes me happy, but where did I save my yWriter projects. I thought I transfered all my writing files on to the Mac. Who knows what happened. They're probably on my lost flash drive.
Love:
Deathspank.
It's a game. You play Deathspank, dispenser of justice, on a quest to get an ancient artifact called "The Artifact." It's funny, graphics and music are great and the voice acting is superb. There's lots of side quest you can do. One being hammering poop out of demon imps to deliver to the farmer so he can fertilize his cherry trees. It's hilarious. And oh so fun. And it only cost $15. And there's a second game for when I beat the first one, and then there's another game after that that doesn't star Deathspank but has him in it. That one's called The Baconing and it's potential awesomness seems extremely high. Too bad I don't have more monies.
I seem to find myself getting back into gaming. I blame my 3DS and Steam. But it's turning out to not be such a bad thing. I've been making friends online and have been able to play with the sister which makes those thousand of miles not seem so far away.
Till next time,
Garnet
Hate:
I have a Mac. I also have a PC but it's getting up there in years and the hard drive makes a loud noise and is probably very close to a crash, so I use my Mac mostly. When I got my Mac I pretty much looked right away for writing software for it, since Pages just seemed liked the hipsters Microsoft Word. I had just started using yWriter5 when I switched computers. It was only available for Windows. Last night I discovered that there was a way to get the Linux version to run on a Mac. It seemed simple, download this program then download yWriter and then use the first program to run yWriter. So I did this and it didn't work. No surprise there. Things never work when they say they should. Eventually it was 2am and I forced myself to give up. In the morning after some sleep I went at it again and it still refused to work. I looked back at the instructions asking myself if I downloaded the right program. I quickly realized I needed to download an older version of the program I was trying to use to run yWriter. Downloaded and installed the older version and low and behold it worked. This makes me happy, but where did I save my yWriter projects. I thought I transfered all my writing files on to the Mac. Who knows what happened. They're probably on my lost flash drive.
Love:
Deathspank.
It's a game. You play Deathspank, dispenser of justice, on a quest to get an ancient artifact called "The Artifact." It's funny, graphics and music are great and the voice acting is superb. There's lots of side quest you can do. One being hammering poop out of demon imps to deliver to the farmer so he can fertilize his cherry trees. It's hilarious. And oh so fun. And it only cost $15. And there's a second game for when I beat the first one, and then there's another game after that that doesn't star Deathspank but has him in it. That one's called The Baconing and it's potential awesomness seems extremely high. Too bad I don't have more monies.
I seem to find myself getting back into gaming. I blame my 3DS and Steam. But it's turning out to not be such a bad thing. I've been making friends online and have been able to play with the sister which makes those thousand of miles not seem so far away.
Till next time,
Garnet
Monday, September 19, 2011
How to resurrect a dead blog
It's September, last post was in May. I totally have a good excuse.
It was aliens...no kidnapped by bigfoot...no wait! Time travel! I time traveled into the future to help fight a zombie apocalypse. Or maybe I traveled to a alternate universe to slay a dragon and save a handsome prince(who immediately married the princess he was betrothed too ): ) Or maybe I did all of these things and more. You have no proof that I didn't.
There was the fair last month. I actually got paid this year to work at the fair. Two days straight on entering entries in the computers. Why does by butt hurt so much? Oh, I broke my tailbone when I fell on my butt a week ago and sitting on hard plastic chair doing data entry wasn't good for it. Then there was the judging, and entering in the results, and man, those quilters have a real attitude problem. And then we put everything up on display. Then the fair. It was the hottest week the entire summer. Walking the floor getting people to vote for the People's Choice Award for the quilts was sweateristic (now I know why they call sweaters sweaters. It's cause they make you sweat, right?). After my first shift doing this I stopped caring. Why isn't there a people's choice for the other crafts in that building, like us knitters, or crocheters? Finally the fair was over and we got to take everything down and give it all back. Had almost 40 hours on my time card. Yarn monies!
Now it's September and what next? National Novel Writing Month that's what! Well not next next, but next next? I have a story I've been wanting to write for years but the plots never quite been all there. Mostly character and world development but a wonderful idea struck me for it the other day. Now I need to gather all the notes I already have and write some more so that I actually have a plan going into Nano. I probably won't fail miserably if I actually know where I want the story to go. This all assuming I can stop playing video games long enough to get anything done. (ha ha!)
Till next time (six months from now?)
Garnet Kimzey
It was aliens...no kidnapped by bigfoot...no wait! Time travel! I time traveled into the future to help fight a zombie apocalypse. Or maybe I traveled to a alternate universe to slay a dragon and save a handsome prince(who immediately married the princess he was betrothed too ): ) Or maybe I did all of these things and more. You have no proof that I didn't.
There was the fair last month. I actually got paid this year to work at the fair. Two days straight on entering entries in the computers. Why does by butt hurt so much? Oh, I broke my tailbone when I fell on my butt a week ago and sitting on hard plastic chair doing data entry wasn't good for it. Then there was the judging, and entering in the results, and man, those quilters have a real attitude problem. And then we put everything up on display. Then the fair. It was the hottest week the entire summer. Walking the floor getting people to vote for the People's Choice Award for the quilts was sweateristic (now I know why they call sweaters sweaters. It's cause they make you sweat, right?). After my first shift doing this I stopped caring. Why isn't there a people's choice for the other crafts in that building, like us knitters, or crocheters? Finally the fair was over and we got to take everything down and give it all back. Had almost 40 hours on my time card. Yarn monies!
Now it's September and what next? National Novel Writing Month that's what! Well not next next, but next next? I have a story I've been wanting to write for years but the plots never quite been all there. Mostly character and world development but a wonderful idea struck me for it the other day. Now I need to gather all the notes I already have and write some more so that I actually have a plan going into Nano. I probably won't fail miserably if I actually know where I want the story to go. This all assuming I can stop playing video games long enough to get anything done. (ha ha!)
Till next time (six months from now?)
Garnet Kimzey
Monday, May 23, 2011
Rawr!
I am writing a blog post!
I know it's been awhile. Oh well, sucks to be you to be without my blog posts for so long. I'm assuming there's someone desperately waiting for me to update this otherwise I'll just feel like it's pointless and stop posting to it. Maybe some people would be happy with that.
So no writing from me. Absolutely none. Plenty on knitting. I got the sister's birthday scarf with matching gloves done and she loved them. And I knitted a baby blanket for Knit Wits. And now I'm working on a blank for myself. It's going to be pretty.
My nightmare cat has discovered a gopher nest and has killed two younger gophers already. One of them had grass sticking out of it's cheek pouch. And thus I learned more about gopher anatomy. I just thought they stored food in incredibly large cheeks. I did not know that they actually pouches over their cheeks.
Going to the beach this weekend. Staying in a condo. Maybe I'll get some writing done. Oh, and I may have found an illustrator for the dragon book. Maybe...
Ta ta for now,
Garnet Kimzey
I know it's been awhile. Oh well, sucks to be you to be without my blog posts for so long. I'm assuming there's someone desperately waiting for me to update this otherwise I'll just feel like it's pointless and stop posting to it. Maybe some people would be happy with that.
So no writing from me. Absolutely none. Plenty on knitting. I got the sister's birthday scarf with matching gloves done and she loved them. And I knitted a baby blanket for Knit Wits. And now I'm working on a blank for myself. It's going to be pretty.
My nightmare cat has discovered a gopher nest and has killed two younger gophers already. One of them had grass sticking out of it's cheek pouch. And thus I learned more about gopher anatomy. I just thought they stored food in incredibly large cheeks. I did not know that they actually pouches over their cheeks.
Going to the beach this weekend. Staying in a condo. Maybe I'll get some writing done. Oh, and I may have found an illustrator for the dragon book. Maybe...
Ta ta for now,
Garnet Kimzey
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